Chronicles of the Heart
by Lixus
Summary: Was it when I first met you when I started to feel this way toward you? I wonder how could this beautiful friendship turned to this? Were we meant to be together?... A story narrating the path this 2 persons took in order for them to achieve happiness
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN Grand Chase, copyrights and all that stuff goes to Ntreev and KoG

* * *

Prologue

It has been such a long journey, such a journey that has given me a lot, I met a lot of people, met such wonderful friends. During this journey I learned so many things from my friends; I learned the meaning of honor, strength, loyalty, leadership, trust, happiness, friendship and love.

We, as a team, got through amazingly tough things, we got through hordes of anmon soldiers, Cyclops, golems, basilisks and even through gods themselves, all of this made our friendship grow stronger and stronger. Even though we were always tired and injured we could always rely on each other, and so we couldn't help but to develop these feelings for a special someone.

She could make the bad times become good, to make my frown turn to a smile, and to console me when things got truly ugly. She was always the glimmer of light in the darkest hours, I remember how awfully worried I was whenever she went with her master to train to acquire a new strength, or when she went on her own to fight the evil witch Kaze'aze.

I really can't remember when these feelings started to surge in me, was it when we met for the first time? Was it when we went against Gaikoz and his large army of anmons? Or maybe it was the time I almost killed her that I realized my love for her…

I have always cared about him, he was always the cheerful one, always spouting the importance of teamwork, always caring about his friends, and maybe it was that kindness that attracted me to him.

I wouldn't have imagined that he would be the one to always stand by my side, to care for me, to be afraid for my sake, to simply and truly love me…

I always knew that he was special to me, he was my best male friend, whenever I felt sad I went to him and he always made me smile, always encouraged me to keep trying, with that kind smile that always adorned his face and made me feel that I could do everything.

Even when I fought my old friends he was there, with that smile that told me that everything is ok, he was my support, he still is, but now he is more than just a friend, I remember how that happened, it is one of the happiest memories I have of our journey…


	2. Chapter 1 Fateful Encounter?

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN Grand Chase, copyrights and all that stuff goes to Ntreev and KoG

* * *

Chapter 1

Fateful encounter? (Arme's perspective)

I remember the first time we met him; it was such a nice day, blue skies, the refreshing sound of water running in the forest, such a nice trip through the elven forest, it was almost like we were taking a vacation to Eryuell Island to visit Lire's master, after all he said he had something important to tell Lire.

"How long before we reach the port? " Asked Elesis as she dragged her feet, obviously bored since there were no enemies around

"Not much, we only take a shortcut through Elven Forest, I only hope it has calmed a little since the elf's massacre" Lire, the mature one of the three of us told Elesis

"You hope it has calmed down? Now that makes me want to rush through there to see if it is truth" Elesis mentioned while starting to stretch her sore muscles.

"Dammm… Now you have made the Knucklehead of our group excited, I only hope she doesn't drag us to danger like she usually likes to do so" I said as I saw how Elesis started to scan the place, expecting to see some monster in the way to the port.

"Come on Arme, it's good to have a little of energy in these situations, besides a it's unlikely that we encounter some mons…" just as Lire was finishing her sentence a horde of orcs and harpies started to surround us.

"So you were saying something about not finding monsters? as far as I can see we are totally surrounded by them"

"Yosh! This kind of situation is what I like the most, feeling the adrenaline of being surrounded, ad just wanting to teach these monsters not to mess with us" unsheathing her sword Elesis started to command us "Let's use the usual formation, Lire get the harpies, Arme start to cast your magic, as for me I'll take care of the orcs"

It really annoyed me when she started to give orders, she seemed so bossy, but whether I liked it or not she was the best of us in these situations, and we had to follow her orders or otherwise we could end dead.

We followed Elesis plan to the letter, Lire started to attack the harpies and one by they were falling like flies, Elesis managed to make a corpse tower out of all the orcs she defeated and I was attacking whatever seemed to have been left, covering Lire in her blind spots and supporting Elesis with both white and black magic.

Everything seemed to go well, that is until more and more monsters started to appear, more harpies more orcs, more of everything, we fighted back with all of our might but they seemed to have no end.

"Damm where those these monster come from? They seem to have no end" said our red haired knucklehead as she started to fall back in exhaustation.

"Tell that to me, I'm starting to run out of arrows" Lire said while fighting back some harpies that have come too close to her with her bow

"Well with me that makes three girls that wonder the same thing, if this continues on I won't be able to cast more spells, I'm running out of mana!"

Just as we started to put an end to it the forest troll decided to make his apparition, exhausted we tried to fight it back, but to no avail.

"What the f…! When did this thing get in here! And what is that thing by the way?" Elesis exclaimed when the troll started to open his path to us

"I don't know but things seem to be getting uglier and uglier" said Lire trying to stay calm and wanting to find a solution to get out of this mess

"Just when I thought that we could have some rest form all these fights we stumble around a troll with a superiority complex?"

Just as I said that we saw an orange blur, it attacked the troll, making it fall back, and as soon as we were aware of our surroundings we saw how all the harpies and orcs started to fall down, all in one single blink of an eye and this orange blur managed to do what we could not do.

"What was that?"

"Dunno, all I could see was an orange blur" surprised Lire stepped back so that she could analyze the situation.

"If Lire's eyes could only see a blur that orange thingy is fast" I tried to not sound surprised but Lire's eyes were one of the pair that could see a lot of things, and she couldn't see well the blur that sure was a reason to be surprised.

As soon as the harpies and orcs fell down we could clearly see the image of an orange wolf, a weird color for a wolf if you asked me, he looked at us and gave us a signal.

"A wolf!" Exclaimed Elesis not believing her eyes as she saw the wolf standing in 2 legs and giving signals to us as if he was human.

"It seems he wants to tell us something" I said while stepping back a little.

"It seems to say that he wants us to run away from here" Lire speculated after seeing the signals.

We of course didn't run away, we simply stepped back a little so that we could rest, we didn't know that he would attack us later…

"Like hell that'll happen! We'll fall back a little so that we can rest, once rested we resume our attack on that thing"

The wolf seemed to understand us and after hearing our conversation he just shacked his head as in disapproval. The wolf then started to attack the troll, moving as fast as the first time he appeared, giving the troll slashes everywhere with his sharp claws.

The troll annoyed managed to grab the wolf and he tossed him around, smashing him to the ground every time he could, soon he throwed him to a nearby tree, breaking it with the force of the troll, the wolf calmly stood up, he observed the now destroyed tree and I could see the change in the wolfs eyes, changing from a dazzling green to a crimson red that covered all of his eyes.

After that everything passed in a flash, we could watch amazed at how the wolf went berserk against the troll, slashing him, biting him, tearing away his skin, he finally defeated him with well placed bite in his throat, chocking him to death and with that the wolf seemed to collapse near the now dead troll.

"No way! He defeated that thing!" exclaimed Elesis with a face of pure surprise at the performance of the wolf.

"I really didn't think he could make it… he seemed to have changed after being toyed with…" Lire sounded astounded by what she just saw

"He seem s to be injured, I'll go there to take care of his wounds, after all he helped us" I said getting up and going to where the wolf was.

"We'll go with you; we want to help as well"

But as soon as he saw us, he stood up and started to approach us with a menacing glare, showing his teeth and trying to attack us with his claws. We were confused; he seemed to be friendlier earlier, he even gave us signals so that we could get away from there.

"What the! Why are you attacking us?" said Elesis who was dodging every claw coming her way

"We just want to help you" Lire tried to reason with him as she was reaching for her bow.

"It's no use; he seems to be blinded by his rage"

"Then we must take him down to calm him"

With that said we took our battle positions, but as soon as he was to give us a beating with his claws, he stopped and collapsed on the ground unconscious.

"Fighting that troll really was exhausting for him, he collapsed before attacking us"

As soon as I said that the wolf started to shake, his hair becoming smaller his teeth becoming that of a human and his claws retreating to become human hands, soon the wolf transformed to a boy of approximately our age, he had orange hair, a green bandana keeping his hair in a spiky fashion, green shirt and shorts with an axe strapped on his back.

"Uuuh! Ok now I'm really confused… why did that wolf became this boy?"

"I don't know, it's better if we wait for him to awake and ask him ourselves"

That was how we first met, he saved us from certain death, and even though he wanted to kill us afterward, we wanted to show him our appreciation, we didn't know he was cursed by the same person we were going against, we didn't know that he would became part of our group, and surely I didn't know how this boy would become my best friend…

* * *

A/N: And with this we start the very first chapter of my fanfic xDD. Thank you to all who readed my story and faved it xD and for the reply of the reviews, yes as you can see this will be in perspective, like the character is telling you the story, some chapters, as you can see will be with only one perspective, some in the future may have more than 1 perspective; so with this we finally know which pairings this one has, hopefully I don't need to spell the couple for you or do I? Anyways I'm looking for a betareader for this story, if someone is interested please send a PM. With that said please R&R and enjoy.


	3. Chapter 2 A Wolf's Agony

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN Grand Chase, copyrights and all that stuff goes to Ntreev and KoG

* * *

Chapter 2

A Wolfs Agony.

The first time we met, was such an awful moment, I could only watch as my body moved on its own to injure innocent people, such a curse that was bestowed upon me, just watching as I was controlled to hurt the people around me, that was the reason that I abandoned the Druid village, I didn't want to cause anymore pain, I didn't want to kill somebody again, not after almost exterminating all of my kind; if it wasn't for my master I was afraid I would really have killed them all…

After I woke up I expected to be left alone, after all who would want to take care of such a monster as me?? Transforming to an enraged wolf, with the power to not only hurt but also kill those around me. However I was surprised at what I saw that evening; when my eyes first opened I could only see purple, such a beautiful color that purple was, or at least it was for me…

"Oh!!! It looks like he is waking up" said the purple girl to her friends.

"Really!! Just in time for dinner!!" said a red headed girl as she was throwing wood to the fire.

"If that's the case we should wait up a little more before having dinner, after all it would be rude for us to have dinner and not giving anything to our savior" said a blond girl near a giant pot, It looked like she was the one in charge of cooking this time.

Once my consciousness started to grasp everything I noticed where I was, my head was resting on the purple girl lap, I noticed all of my body was bandaged and all the ointments used for my treatment.

"Thank you for everything, but you don't need to do all this for me"

"Don't worry about it, it's the least we could do to our hero" said with a smile the purple headed girl.

"I'm no hero… I tried to kill you after all…" Guilt was consuming me… I was no hero… I only tried to not kill them…

"So you remember that… perfect that makes the bringing of the topic less awkward" said the red headed girl as she looked over to see me.

"…"

"First let us introduce ourselves, it would be quite rude for us to continue and not know each other's names wouldn't you think?"

"My name is Ryan" clearly taking the hint I introduced myself to the girls.

"Nice to meet you Ryan, my name is Arme" said the purple girl with a smile on her face and then she turned to the red head "that red headed knucklehead over there is Elesis"

"Hey!!! Who you are calling that?! You want to settle things here and now!?!?!?" said a pissed red headed girl, whose name now I knew was Elesis.

"And that blonde over there is Lire" Arme just ignored her as she now turned to the blond girl "We are members of the Grand Chase, a group formed in order to fight against the tyranny of the evil witch Kaze'Aze"

"So Ryan… I'm quite curious about all this, first we encounter a wolf… a humanoid wolf, first it clearly help us, advising us to run away from there, at first one would have thought that this humanoid wolf didn't want us to get hurt by the troll, but then after defeating it the wolfs attacked us, so the warning signal at the beginning wasn't for us to run away from the troll… it was to run away from you. Am I right?" I was clearly moping at these words… I really didn't want them to get involved… I didn't want to hurt anyone… not again…

"And so after the wolf collapsed it turned back to you… if I am correct the only ones that can transform in animals form such as that wolf would be the elven druids right?" Lire now was serving food in plates, giving one to Arme, one to Elesis and one to me, I reluctantly accepted it.

"… Yes, that's right… it's just as you say… I'm a member of the Elven Druids… that form you saw was my animal form, chosen by Mother Nature herself" The girls know sitting next to the fire and starting to eat the food that Lire offered everyone. When I said the last words Lire coughed in surprise and almost chocked.

"That's impossible!!! There shouldn't be Druids your age!!! All of them were wiped out in a training mission they underwent; the only one that came back was master Segesu, he said all of the Druids recruit were killed by trolls" with a little help of Elesis, Lire swallowed the food and yelled in surprise… Understandable I f you ask me, I would had the same reaction if they told me something similar in that situation.

"So that's the official version master Segesu said uhh?"

"What?? What's that supposed to mean? "

"At that time, the death of all those Druids wasn't the trolls doing… It was mine"

"What do you mean by that? – Elesis asked me, curiosity now visible in her face.

"Exactly what it sounds like… I killed all those Druids…" Shame, pain and sadness were engulfing me as I started to recall those horrible memories of that time.

"How is that possible? I mean you surely look like a nice person to me" a curious Arme pondered over the answer to that question. AT that time I realized that I needed to tell them my history in order for them to leave this place and go far away… for at any time my transformation may start and then my will shall succumbs to the darkness that was forcefully implanted in me.

"It was just as you said Lire… we were having a routine mission, just patrolling the forest to assure everything was alright… that's when I saw him… a boy with silver hair standing there… alone in the forest, I approached him to see what was wrong… as I approached I saw as some aura was engulfing a forest Troll" The girls listened attentive to my past

"A troll!!"

"Yes… exactly the same one we were fighting not long ago… anyway after a little while the dark aura that was engulfing the troll disappeared and I Heard the silver haired boy whispering to him… that at any time he would have control of all creature in the forest and when that happened they would rampage the world starting with this forest…"

"That is awfull!!"

"I had to do something at that time; I couldn't allow letting the boy get away with it… I was young and naïve at the time… I tried to stop him on my own… oh a big mistake that was… he quickly overpowered me, I was humiliated… me who was the best of the druids defeated in such a short time? I couldn't believe it. I transformed into a wolf with the power of nature and started to attack but to no avail… he was simply to skilled"

The girls now were showing different emotions at once, disbelief, surprise, preoccupation, understanding… too many emotions to actually remember.

"He seemed pretty interested in my transformation and murmured something about being a nice pet… after that everything went wrong… horribly wrong… he casted a magic circle around me and after I was no longer in control of my body… and after that… everything was chaos, as my fellow druids saw me I killed them… I could only see how I slayed all of my companions on that mission, if it wasn't for master Segesu I would have gone to Eryuell island and surely do the same thing"

Understanding now was visible in the girls' faces, as they now knew the reason of my sudden rampage against them.

"After that I barely managed to control myself, I exiled myself from the Island so that if I went berserk I wouldn't hurt anyone again… I don't want to feel that ever again… such a curse that was bestowed upon me" Sadness was now all over my face, recalling those memories are always painful… I still had nightmares of that night by that time.

"Curse??… Wait a minute you mentioned earlier a magic circle… so if it's something related to magic then surely I can do something about it"

"It's no use… I have tried everything to get away from this curse; I traveled all across Bermesiah so that I could get rid of this curse" I appreciated the intention behind that, but even the best mages in the continent did not know what this curse was.

"The magic you talk about sound awfully similar to what Kaze'Aze did to the Kanavan Queen to start the war… If Kaze'Aze is responsible for your curse then obviously the mages around the continent wouldn't know how to get rid of the curse… And after all you didn't know me before, Arme the prodigy of the violet guild of magicians"

"The violet guild?!?!?! You are a member of that guild??" I was surprised, meeting a member of the violet mage guild was only a privilege given to the royal families and those close to them.

"Sure am" Arme searched in her robes for the crest of the violet guild – and if this doesn't prove it then I don't know what will"

"So you think you can take away this curse" A ray of hope fell on me, I finally had a way to get rid of the curse that made me kill my kind.

"If it's something that has to do with magic I sure will" Confident in her skills, Arme gave a smile as she know was looking for some kind of book in her robes.

"Thank you!! Thank you!! Thank you!! Thank you!!" I couldn't resist anymore the happiness that was now engulfing me. I rose from my sitting place near the fire and hugged Arme with all my might, trying to convey all my gratitude in that single hug.

"D.. Do.. Don't worry about it, with this we are even" Arme stuttered a little as she tried to return my hug.

"Well sorry to interrupt this sweet little moment but it's time for us to go to Eryuell Island" I started to release my hug to Arme and stepped back after Elesis said that, as I did so I noticed a little blush in Arme's face but didn't look into it so much, I was happy to finally get rid of my curse that those little detail didn't seemed important at the moment. "So we just finish our food and we get on our way there" After that I started to dig on the food, now realizing how hungry I really was.

"You know how to get there from here? " I asked the girls as we started to clean the place.

"Well…"

"It doesn't look that way, I'll guide you there, after all I know this forest like the palm of my hand"

"So to Eryuell we go"

After that I joined their group for the moment, and showed them the way to Eryuell Island, the land of elves, I was nervous to return there, so afraid of how they would treat me, afraid of rejection, but I was so excited to finally have a way for me to get rid of the curse, I traveled a lot and searched for the answer for so long, and finally someone would set me free of that curse, I couldn't imagine that at a later time that same person that saved me from a life of torment, would be more important to me than Nature itself.

* * *

A/N:Finally!!! After a little while I had inspiration to finish this chapter!! xD so we now have Ryan joining the Grand Chase, at least until they find a way to get rid of Ryan's curse, so now we wonder what will happen once they get to Eryuell, will Ryan have the courage to see Segesu? what did Lire's master wanted to see her for? how will Arme get rid of the curse? Will Elesis stop rushing to battle without using her head?

Please R&R if you liked it (n_n)


	4. Chapter 3 The Land of Elves

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN Grand Chase, copyrights and all that stuff goes to Ntreev and KoG

* * *

Chapter 3

The land of elves, new powers, new knowledge.

It was a short trip to exit the elven forest and reach the port that would take us to Eryuell Island. Ryan really wasn't joking when he said he knew the forest like the palm of his hand, he knew every possible path and its dangers, he knew where there was a root above ground and he advised us to be careful and not stumble ourselves; he knew where we could rest and where we could get some food and water.

Surely he was a bit odd after every meal we had, he was always saying that we must always thank Mother Nature for everything that we borrowed, and made us promise that we would repay the favor. Lire seemed to be used to this kind of behavior, but Elesis wasn't, she once got scolded by Ryan after she cut a tree to make a fire, he said that we must take what nature gave us by will, not take it by force.

During the trip I noticed that Ryan for some reason treated me with more kindness than Elesis or Lire, always watching out for me, helping me get past places that normally I wouldn't be able to get past on my own, maybe it was because I was reading magic books as we were walking so that I could start to get the curse removed… they say that reading while walking is one of the top reason of why people end up injured, but … well we know that statistics doesn't rule everything.

After a few days we managed to get out of Elven forest and reach the sea, who would know that forest, was that huge?!?!?!

"So here we are… the sea" said Ryan with a big smile inhaling the fresh air characteristic of beaches.

"Finally we are out of that dammed forest!!"

"That sure was a long walk"

"Yey!!! No more trees, no more vines or roots to watch out for!!!" Elesis sure was enthusiastic to get out of that forest, after all she was the one that was always scolded for unintentionally harming Nature.

"Well Ryan It seems you did a very good job in breaking our knuckle head"

"He he… well I couldn't let her do as she pleased, otherwise there would be no more forest" I could comply with that, Elesis patience sure was thin, and as soon as something stopped her way, her natural reaction was to slice it in half, be it orcs, harpies, goblins and even plants.

"Say Lire where is the supposed port that will take us to Eryuell?" Being in a beach was nice and all, but unfortunately we didn't come here for vacation… well we could but I didn't expect to get to a beach, I was expecting more like a port city or something of that magnitude, for that reason I didn't brought my swimsuit that time.

"Right here"

"Here? ... Are you sure? I don't see anything that looks like a port" I looked everywhere but the only thing I saw was a little shack in the beach that had a little port that I assumed was for a little fishing boat.

"See that shack over there? That, little mage, is the port" said Lire with a grin tha wanted to screw my mind a little.

"Say what!!!" I couldn't believe it, how were we supposed to get all the way to Eryuell with only a small fishing boat?? There was barely space for 5 people to fit in. As I was contemplating the idea Lire was already reaching the shack.

"Sir Eryx!! Are you here!! Please open the door!!"

"What the hell is with this entire ruckus" a deep voice answered to Lire's calls. Soon the door opened to reveal an old elf, if I was to compare to humans I'll said that he looked like a man nearing his 40 years. "Hey!! If it isn't Lire!!" Said Eryx as he captured Lire in a massive hug and spun her around.

"Sir Eryx, it sure is nice to see you again"

"Ha ha ha. It sure is. Say how you doing? Words say that you joined a group called the Grand Chackra or something like that" by this point Lire was trying to regain balance after all the spinning around, it was funny to see her dizzy.

"It's called the Grand Chase sir Eryx, and yes I joined it, this way I can find a way for elves and humans to once again coexist peacefully"

"Ha ha ha. As always you have the biggest dreams of peace in your mind, and please stop calling me sir, just call me Eryx, calling me sir makes me sound like I'm already old" Eryx really got that right, since I had known Lire she always was the calm one, the mature one, and the one who always tried to help people wherever she went, so hearing her dream wasn't a shock… I was kind of expecting something like that "Say Lire what brings you here? Already homesick?"

"Not really Si… Eryx, I received a letter from my master, she said that I needed to go back to Eryuell, that she needed to tell me something, she also told me to bring the other members of the Grand Chase with me"

"Oh so it's already that time eh?"

"I sure hope so… I've been waiting for that for a long time now"

"Ha ha ha. If anyone deserves that, I'm sure it's you"

"Thank You Si.. Eryx"

With that said Eryx started to make his way to his little port, he started to gather his fishing tools and throw them into the shack so that he could make space in his boat for all of us.

"Well if they are orders from your Master then my duty is to take you all of you there" as he said that he finally took his eyes of Lire and looked over to where we were. "Nice to meet you members of the Grand Chase, my name is Eryx and I'll be your captain in your trip to Eryuell the land of elves"

"Nice to meet you too, my name is Arme" I said as I shake hands with the older elf.

"Nice to meet you Eryx, I'm Elesis" Elesis finally shook off her hyper activeness and calmly greeted the elf.

"Oh it seems you are not the only elf Lire, over here this boy is also one of us" Ryan was the farthest of all from the shack, it looked like he didn't want to be noticed and just waiting for us to get ready so that he could return to his exile.

"Hi… My name is Ryan" Ryan introduced himself realizing that now the chance of avoiding Eryuell was getting more and more complicated.

"Ryan eh?? How come there is another elf here in Bermesiah besides Lire and me"

"He is a survivor of the Druid massacre 5 years ago Eryx…"

"What!! I thought every last druid died that day!!"

"Well… honestly I thought so too but he seems to know Master Segesu"

"Well if he is a survivor of the massacre then this trip takes priority over anything else, we must take him to see Segesu"

Ryan Realized that now there was no way for him to avoid getting to Eryuell and the idea was making him look… scared… the idea of going back to Eryuell and see Master Segesu seemed to frighten him to no end… I would also be scared to confront him after everything he got trough, it isn't easy to confront the ones you abandoned when you expect to carry the blame of the death of all those Druids…

"Ryan… You ok?" He started to tremble with fear, and started to look more and more pale.

"…" he didn't say anything and he just continued to tremble as he lost more color. I couldn't bear to see him like that, in the days we spend traveling the elven forest he seemed so cheerful and happy, but now he looked like the complete opposite of him, I couldn't see him like that, I wanted to see his smile again at that time… so I did the only thing that came to my mind, I hugged him and tried to comfort him.

"Here… everything will be alright… nobody will blame you for all those deaths… I t was not your fault" I repeated and repeated these words until his shivering stopped, it didn't take long, and soon he stopped, color returning to his face.

"Hey you two, stop getting all lovey dovey and get your asses over here, we're about to take off" Elesis sure had bad timing when it came to this kind of things... but at that time I saw how Ryan face started to get more color, and he seemed to start going red… at that time I dismissed it as a sign that he was now better and willing to go to Eryuell.

"Hey who are you calling lovey dovey!!! We are just friends!!!" I shouted back at Elesis, I wasn't going to let her mock me for trying to be nice to him.

"Sure sure, just come here and get on the boat… the both of you" with that said Elesis got on the boat and signaled for us to come.

"Come Arme… It's time for us to go" said Ryan as he started to get on the boat.

Looking at Ryan being his usual self made me smile, so with renewed strength I made my way to the boat and we started to get things ready for the trip overseas. Soon we got everything ready and we set sail for Eryuell. It wasn't a long trip… actually it was only a 2 hour sail from the beach we were to get to Eryuell island. I was amazed at how the elves were so close to Bermesiah yet they didn't go around the continent too often.

"Ok Grand Chase we are here, this is Eryuell Island" As we arrived we could now see a Island filled with trees, with the cleanest water and the purest of air. It was a nice change of place from the ever agitated castle city where we had our main HQ.

"Well... it didn't take long for us to get here" said a bored Elesis as she was trying to get the sleep of off her eyes.

"I agree with knuckle head over there, I thought that Eryuell was… I don't know… deeper into the sea"

"Ha ha ha. It sure isn't, we don't need to go more deep into the sea for us to be safe"

"How come?"

"The Elder elves have the knowledge of ancient runes and they have set runes all over the place so that humans won't know where we are"

Soon after that we arrived to the harbor and set foot for the first time in Eryuell, the land of elves.

"Aaaahhhh! It sure is nice to be home!" Lire said now beaming with energy, after all we were in her homeland.

"Ha ha ha. It sure is. Ok girls here's the deal, you three go to Astrid and see what she wants to tell you, meanwhile I'll take druid boy here to see Segesu"

"Ok sound good to me"

"Astrid? Who the hell is this Astrid person?"

"She is my master, the one who taught me how to use a bow… and also my mom"

For some reason I wasn't surprised at all, it looks that teaching one child is common, in the Violet guild, mages teach their child all the time and Elesis said that her father taught her how to use a sword.

"Ha ha ha. We'll see you gals later" And with dad Eryx took Ryan to see Segesu… well it was more like he got dragged away to see him since he just stood there mumbling something to himself.

Soon after they left we made our way to see Lire's mom, with Lire leading the way, I was amazed at how the elves lived, they are more in contact with nature than us humans, now we knew why Lire looked used to Ryan's antics, Eryuell was a beautiful place, trees surrounding us everywhere, everything seemed to have been designed so that it had a balance with the natural environment, it almost was like walking in a forest, only with more people around going from here to there, buying, selling, training, etc. At that time I realized that we humans and elves really aren't that different. If only they weren't driven away years ago, maybe we could all live in peace right now.

Soon we reached our destination, a archer training field, there we found a beautiful blond woman preparing her bow to shoot another arrow, she had an elegant aura around her, and even when she was there training, she looked elegant, if you took the time to look around you could see that she always shoot in the bulls eye.

"Mom!!! It's nice to see you again!!" Lire ran to her mother and gave her a big hug.

"Lire!!! Is that you? You sure have grown" Lire's mom said as she returned the hug, happy to see her little girl fine and safe.

To see a family is always painful for me, I mean I'm really thankful to the violet guild who took me in and raised me when my parents died while I was still a baby and I know they are my family… but still I wonder how it feels to be embraced by your real parents…

"Mom let me introduce my friends to you; this one here is Elesis the knuckle head of the group"

"Knuckle head?? Not you too Lire… Arme has corrupted you… anyways nice to meet you"

"And this other one is Arme the magician of the group"

"Nice to meet you ma'am"

"Nice to meet you too gals, so the three of you are the so called Grand Chase right?"

"Well not really, there's still one member left to introduce to you, but Eryx took him to see Master Segesu" Lire said to her mother, it looked like we have already made Ryan to be a part of the group, the thought made me smile as now we had a new friend that would help us in these times of need.

"Eryx did that? Then he must quite the incredible one"

"Well after all he is a survivor of the elven forest massacre"

"What!?!? He is a survivor?!?!"

"Well at least that was what he told us"

"So that means that he is the last remaining Druid then…"

"Last Druid? Weren't' there supposed to be more?" Elesis asked, it seemed weird for them to not have active druids… after all the Druids way is a part of who elves are.

"Well that was our intention… but the massacre left a psychological scar on the elves here… and the mothers don't want to put their sons to such danger after what happened to all the druids…"

"So they didn't want to get more Druids…"

"But hopefully with him being a survivor then we can revive the Druids"

"Excuse me for my rudeness but aren't' there more elves clans elsewhere who can train Druids?" I interrupted curious to know if this was the only gathering place for elves to learn the druid way.

"Not that I'm aware of, the only ones who knows how to train a Druid are Segesu and Master Mo'ru Pi'su, Segesu is here trying to train the young ones but they don't let him because of the massacre, and Master Mo'ru Pi'su is a wanderer Viken, he wanders around the world to see that Nature keeps its balance"

"Oh… I see…"

"May I ask the why of the question?"

"Well… it's because I want to understand the situation, I want to help and see if there is some knowledge that can make my magic evolve to the next level so that I can help in wherever I can"

"You are a good gal, I really appreciate that there's someone like you around my little Lire so that she can learn from your thirst of knowledge"

"Mom!!! I do study you know…"

"It can't hurt to try and study a little about everything that surrounds you"

"Sorry for being rude but Miss Astrid could you tell us why you summoned us here?" Elesis asked, her impatience getting the better of her.

"Oh my, aren't we a little impatient?"

"Well you need to understand that with someone like Kaze'Aze on the loose, the sooner we get rid of her the better. Right?"

"A little impatient indeed but you seem to be a good gal"

"Thank you ma'am"

"The real reason I summoned you is because I wanted to see how the lot of you are and how much you are willing to sacrifice in order for evil to not harm us"

"You can rest assured; we will get rid of Kaze'Aze or any evil that dares to harm us!!"

"I know you will, and for that I'll let you know that all of Eryuell Island will do everything that is within our reach to assist you"

"Thank you very much Ma'am, in behalf of the Grand Chase I gladly accept your help"

With this help we had everything we needed to destroy the evil empire of Kaze'Aze, it seemed that this war against her made us overcome our difference and little by little we were getting to made true Lire's wish.

"Is that everything Mom?"

"Not really… Lire I think it's time for you to ascend to the next level of archery"

"Really!?!?"

"Yes my little Lire, for the following 2 weeks I'll train you in the arts of the dual crossbows"

"So you're staying 2 weeks to train??... Dam… that means we are trapped here until you complete your training… and here I tough that we could go already to Kanavan to contact the Queen of the alliance with Serdin and with the elves…"

"Do not worry about that Knight Master already contacted the Queens of Serdin and Kanavan to tell them about the alliances"

"UUhh? Then what am I supposed to do in these 2 weeks?"

"Well Knight master send me a mission for you Elesis, I'm sure that'll keep you busy for a little while"

"Ok let see what she got in store for me" "Wow!!! She wants me to learn how to use a spear!!! sweet!!" Now that made our knuckle head pumped up, but with her in her spear training and Lire with her crossbows training that left me with nothing to do, so I thought that I would make use of this and see if I could find a clue on how to get rid of Ryan's curse.

"Excuse me Ma'am… do you have a library around here?" I asked hoping that in here I could find the answer that was eluding me these past few days.

"You sure like knowledge right?"

"Sure, I do"

"But I'm afraid that our magic books are only restricted to rune makers, and I'm sure those books won't have anything you already know"

"I kind of figured that could happen… still I want to look and see if I find something useful for my research"

"Oh… that reminds me, in her letter Knight Master said that the guild leader of the Violet Guild wanted to talk to you about something"

"Really!!! Thanks, I'll contact him right away"

With that I rushed out to seek a place where I could have some privacy, after a little while of running I found a nice spot near a river and surrounded by trees, I took out a crystal ball out of my robes and concentrated my mana on the ball, soon image started to show and the face of an old man appeared on the ball

"Leader Arme reporting for duty"

"Arme, it seems Miss Astrid told you to contact me"

"She sure did Leader"

"Please Arme, stop calling me Leader… you know that you are like a daughter to me so call me by my name"

"Sure… Grandpa... you needed to tell me something?"

"Alas that's true my little mage, see it happened not long ago, I was reading the cards to know a little about the future, and they told me, a greater evil is rising at the same time that the evil witch Kaze'Aze, an evil of which we haven't seen before"

"What?!?! More evil than Kaze'Aze?? Is that even possible?"

"At least that was what the cards told me, you know Arme, the future is not set in stone, it can always change, we can always make the future look brighter for all of us… for that I seem it's appropriate for you to advance to the next range of magic"

"You mean… I'll finally be able to use alchemy??"

"That's right my little mage, it's finally time for you to give alchemy a try, your mana should already get stabilized, and you know that alchemy requires not only knowledge but the right amount of mana or otherwise you could end creating something else of what you wanted"

I sure know that, I still remember one time when I was at the guild that I was trying alchemy, and because of my not so great mana control I blew half of the guild. With the excitement of finally getting to use alchemy I almost forgot about Ryan's situation so I decided to ask grandpa, afeter all he is considered as the human library of the guild.

"Say Grandpa is there a way for a body controller curse to be removed by my actual range?"

"A body control curse?... not really… the only way for it to be removed is for the spell caster to remove it or for the spell caster to die… why the question?"

"Well in my journey I met a elven boy that was cursed by Kaze'Aze, and at random times his body is controlled and kills everything in his way… he saved us, and now I want to help him… I want to give that boy freedom again…"

"My my such a noble goal you got there… what happened to the Arme that was only interested in Magic?" Grandpa knew me better than anyone in the guild; he knew that my only interest for me to learn magic is because I want to expand my knowledge and surpass him.

"She found friends…" Grandpa knew that I didn't had friends when I was at the guild… they were always making fun of me because of the color of my hair… or for my lack of parents. That also was the reason I set my goal to learn all possible kind of magic… since I didn't had friends to laugh and goof around.

"I'm glad for you Arme… you of all people, deserve to have people who you can call friends"

"So grandpa… there really isn't anything I could do?"

"Well there is a way… but it's only temporary, and is necessary for the person to have a strong will, otherwise it won't work"

"Don't worry he has one of the strongest will's I have seen"

"Very well then… I'll send you the method to your book via magic… and Arme, in order for you to use this you need to master alchemy first… I'll also send you some books you haven't read about alchemy as well as exercises for your mana control"

"Thanks Grandpa, you are the best!"

"Don't worry about it Arme… It's time to go… don't become a stranger ok?"

"I won't… take care Grandpa"

With those words I returned to where Elesis and Lire were and started to read the books grandpa send me. The next two weeks were full of training, from day to night. Elesis busy trying and succeeding in learning the proper use of the spear, Lire slowly mastering the crossbows and me mastering mana control. In those two weeks we barely saw Ryan, we only saw him at lunch and dinner, he always leaved early and came back really late… always covered in wounds, I know because I treated his wounds every night, I wondered if those wounds were from a sort of punishment held by the need to blame and punish someone for what happened in the elven forest… but whenever I brought up the topic he said that I shouldn't worry and that everything was fine. I believed him, but those wounds really startled me… I mean it's only natural to care for your friends, right? Soon the 2 weeks passed quickly and we were ready to head back to Bermesiah for us to continue our journey.

* * *

A/N: Yey!!! chapter 3 is finally up, my largest chapter so far, there was so much coming to my mind, hope you like it. I would like to thank ShadowKirby for his review, thanks man you were right it really looks better to use quotations and also thanks for notice my little error about the Violet guild i have already fixed it, one again thanks.

R&R and enjoy (n_n)


	5. Chapter 4 The Sentinel Way

Disclaimer: I do not own Grand Chase or any other references made in this chapter!!!

* * *

Chapter 4

The Sentinel Way.

Eryuell, it had been a long time since I was last here. It really took me back to those times I was training to become a Druid. It was harsh, but it was also a happy period, I remembered the time my dad trained me in the use of the axe, and how my mom taught me how to transform and to use the power of nature to help my comrades… All of that vanished when they were killed by a storm on Partusay's sea…

After Eryx practically dragged me to see Segesu my fear of confronting him returned; the weight of all the lives I took started to burrow into my mind and I started to shiver. I froze in fear at what I thought would surely be my downfall, and this that Arme wasn't there to make it all feel better. I never knew why having her by my side always calmed me down, she made me feel relaxed. It was truly mysterious. As Eryx dragged me trough the village I could only feel the eyes of all the elves upon me; staring at me as if I was some kind of criminal… or at least that was how it felt.

We arrived shortly to a tent in the outskirt of the village and entered it.

"Segesu!!! I've come back!!" Eryx exclaimed joyfully.

"Eryx? Is that you?" called back a voice that I didn't want to hear at the moment. "Ha. It really is you Eryx!!! How have you been?"

"Ha ha ha. I've been doing well my old friend, you know, fishing and observing how the situation in Bermesiah evolves, and you?"

"I have been better, the recruiting of new Druids isn't going as planned; it seems the accident at Elven forest leaved a scar in the hearts of everyone here…"

As I heard this my guilt grew, it was my fault that the Druids were going extinct, it was my fault that everyone here was scared to become a Druid. It was my fault…

"Anyways… you seem to have a guest. Mind introducing him?"

With that said Eryx cleared the way and Master Segesu could see me clearly, I didn't want to meet his eyes. I was afraid of what I would find there; anger, hatred. So with my head down I walked closer to Master Segesu.

"Ryan? Is that you?" Master looked surprised. No anger or hatred seemed to have made its way in his voice; only surprise.

"Yes Master… it's me Ryan…" As I said that I expected for master to explode in anger for even daring to show myself to him again. I mean, after all I, killed all those elves. Too wrapped up in my own self loathing, I could not foresee his next words.

"Ryan! Thank god that you are well and safe," As Master said that, he enveloped me in a hug.

I didn't know how to react. Wasn't he angry that I killed those other elves? Wasn't he angry because I never returned to apologize? Wasn't he angry at all?

"I thought that you were a goner by now, you must have had it tough," Master Segesu was shaking at this time… my shoulder started to get wet, that's when I realized that master was crying, crying for my well being… and that's when I finally lost it… my guilt got the better of me.

"Why Master?!? Why aren't you mad at me?!?" I shouted at him as I got free from his hug.

"Why should I be mad at you? As far as I remember you didn't do anything wrong…"

"But Master… I was the one who killed all the other Druids…" I said with a small voice, even though it was quiet it reached Eryx ears.

"YOU DID WHAT!?!?" Eryx was shocked to hear this… going red with fury… he must have thought that I deceived him so that I could get closer to Eryuell so that I could slaughter all the remaining elves… I couldn't blame if he thought that.

"Eryx… calm down… He didn't do it," Master put a hand on Eryx shoulder, signalizing for him to calm down, which, surprisingly he did.

"I DID!!! You were the one who stopped me," I shouted at Master exasperated, I couldn't get him to believe me… it was my hand that was dirtied with the blood of others, "Otherwise I would have killed everyone else!!" I said this last part with a small, trembling voice.

"No you didn't… the Ryan I know wouldn't do such things, the Ryan I know is gentle, and caring, so the only way for you to do something like that means that you were forced to do it," Master Segesu always surprised me, to be able to come to such conclusion means that he wasn't just strong but also a wise Elf.

"But Master… even if that's true it doesn't erase the fact that I killed everyone"

"Do not worry my boy, for I know it was not your fault," Master truly believed that it wasn't my fault, but I couldn't get that through my mind, my guilt getting the better of me.

"But I deprived my fellow Druids the chance to grow… and that is a sin for a Druid," For a Druid to end the life of any being without apologizing and being thankful for the sacrifice was the worst sin one could do.

"You torment yourself too much about this my young Druid, for if you were a killer you wouldn't repent for this as much as you do know."

"Master…"

"Ryan It was not your fault"

"But Master… no matter what I do I can't shake the feeling that I did something awful… since it wasn't a natural death, the souls of those elves will become corrupt…" We Druids have the beliefs that all things return to Nature sooner or later… and when the soul of any being isn't capable to return, the soul corrupts…

"What you need my young Druid is to know that those elves have returned to earth"

"But how can I do that"

"For that, Ryan you need to become a Viken, the highest rank among us Druids, and for that you need to get stronger, you need to create a bond with Nature, so that you can assure that everyone returned safely to earth"

"Master…"

"And so Ryan, for you to be able to become a Viken you first need to learn the way of the Sentinel," said master with a somewhat excited voice.

"Sentinel?"

"Yes Ryan, a Sentinel, the one that watch over nature, the one that guards it over the shadows, for Sentinels do not attack anyone, we protect Nature"

"Isn't that good boy, with this you can repent to those elves that you were forced to kill," Eryx approached me and put his hand in my shoulder, having heard the story, this expression was of understanding.

"Eryx… you don't hate me?" I was surprised, I believed for him to hate me after hearing that I was the one who killed everyone.

"What for?"

"For killing our kind…"

"Ha ha ha. Don't be ridiculous boy. For what I can see you were controlled by some kind of force, and you are to be trusted," It looked that he liked to surprise me, because once again he did so.

"Why?"

"Because the girls of the Grand Chase trusts you boy," As Eryx said that a part of me felt relieved, I wasn't alone anymore…

"Okay Ryan, talking time is over, in order for you to become a Sentinel we must see how your Druid techniques and knowledge is… I hope that you didn't slack off during your mourning time" Master looked like a kid who got a new toy, but I could understand his joy, after all he could once again teach the Druids teaching to the younger generations.

"Yes sir," Not wanting to steal his joy with my tiredness, I agreed and the three of us got out of the tent and into the forest surrounding the village.

Soon after we started the training to become a Sentinel, the training was hard. Day after day we worked on strengthening our bond with Nature, getting familiarized with our roots. For that we carved totems. Totems represent the bond we have with Nature, symbolizing that every being is equal in the eyes of nature as well as symbolizing our animal guardians. Our training knew of no horary, we started early in the morning, warming up and starting getting ourselves ready for the new day, we reviewed the Druid teachings, for they were the base of the Sentinel way, in the afternoon Master would leave me alone in the forest, instructing me to be aware of nature, as well as gathering materials for the construction of my own Jade Hook, the weapon of the Sentinel. In the night Master taught me the ways of infiltration as well as concealing, for Sentinels must protect nature without them being seen. This training left me exhausted; Master doesn't know how to hold back on this. It was more than once that I returned with several wounds after my training.

Even though I didn't see the girls that much I knew they would be fine, since I returned when everyone was already asleep, I know they were fine by the snoring noises I heard every once in a while. On the second day as I returned I stumbled upon Arme, apparently she too was lacking sleep for she was reading book after book of Alchemy.

"Hey Arme, what you doing up this late?" setting up a mask that covered my tiredness I talked to her.

"Wha, what? Who is there? Oh it's just you Ryan," Arme was a little scared at first, but when she realized it was me she relaxed.

"Yeah just me. Say you didn't answer my question."

"Oh sorry, I'm a little sleepy, I've been sleeping late expanding my knowledge of alchemy; I wouldn't like to make this house blow up."

"So the great Arme likes to blow houses once in a while," I said in a joking manner

"Hey what's that supposed to mean?" she said in mock indignation.

"Ha ha ha ha. Nothing at all Arme."

"Hey Ryan... are you okay?" Arme looked concerned as she said this, discovering my mask.

"Why do you ask that?" I didn't want to upset her so I did my best to hide my wounds.

"It just... you look tired and you are covered with wounds… Did anything happen?" Arme was sharp, she completely saw through my mask.

"Ah this… just some scratches that I got in the forest, nothing to worry about" I lied with a smile, not wanting to upset her.

"You sure you got this in the forest? Some of them look like they were made by a blade…" Arme burned me with her distraught gaze.

"Ah… those are probably from the larger branches, you know some of them are quite dangerous," Arme didn't buy my lie so to not upset her I quickly used the lateness as an excuse to get away and get some sleep.

"Ah look at the time, it is best if we go to sleep now," As I said that I tried to get away from there, only to have Arme stop me by my sleeve.

"Wait, at least let me treat your wounds before going to sleep."

After that, night after night Arme waited for me patiently and healed my wounds, I told her that she didn't need to bother with this, but she refused, saying that that's what friends are for.

After five days of intense training I finally reunited enough material to make my Jade Hook.

"Ok Ryan with this we can make you Jade Hook, you must remember Ryan just like nature makes everyone of us unique, your Jade Hook must also be unique and only for you"

"Yes Master"

With that I started to forge my Jade Hook, carefully giving it form, adding my personal touch. After hours of hard work I successfully made my own Jade Hook. Mostly mistaken for a Bow by the moon shape of the weapon, this weapon unlike bows has a sharpened blade, as for my personal touch I put emerald dust in it to give it a peculiar green color and giving it durability, putting in the handle a ruby, my father's birth stone, for he was one of the best Sentinels.

"Good work Ryan, with this we can start the Sentinel teachings"

"Wait a moment, you mean that everything until now was nothing but a warm up?"

"Well not necessarily, that was merely the basic and since you already have your Jade Hook we can start to grave onto your body the techniques of the Sentinels, so come on, we have little time left to teach you this"

With a resigned sigh I followed Master, not knowing that what we did for this so called training will be more intense than anything I have ever done. The remaining days passed quickly, and soon it was our time to say goodbye to Eryuell.

"So it's finally time," Lire said with a voice that gave us the feeling that she didn't wanted to go.

"Finally to Kanavan!!"

"Elesis you sure are enthusiastic to go to Kanavan, any motive for you to be exited?" said Arme, waiting for a chance to mock her.

"Ha… ha… not really, it just means that we are closer to our objective, you know kicking some monster ass and that stuff" Elesis looked nervous at first, it seemed that she was trying to hide something.

"Just like Elesis to be excited about that,"

"Well it's not like I spend my stay here locked in a room reading boring books" Elesis didn't let Arme mock her, instead she tried to return her the favor.

"At least I know what I should you knuckle head"

"Say that again!! I dare you!!!" Arme now having achieved her objective now showed a smile on her face.

"Come on, girls, there's no need to start arguing…" As the third party I tried to get them to not argue, once again.

"Mother, thank you for your guidance, I shall make good use of the things you taught me," Lire said after turning to Astrid.

"You are welcome dear. I really enjoyed our time together,"

"Yeah me too,"

"So this is goodbye… for now," Astrid gave Lire a hug, for she didn't know when she would see her daughter again, "Do your best dear and stay safe."

"I will mom," Lire returned the hug, trying to assure her mother that she would come back safe.

"Thank you for your hospitality Miss Astrid" said Arme bowing in appreciation

"It was nothing, just promise to take care of yourselves. I really enjoyed your visit; make sure next time it's only for fun ok?"

"Will do Ma'am"

As they were thanking Miss Astrid, Master Segesu was giving me some advice at the last moment.

"Ryan remember to not use your new weapon yet, you must search for that thing first"

"Nephilim Feather right?"

"Yes, without that you can't become a sentinel yet, you must made a pact with the Nephilim Guardian and for that a Nephilim Feather is the way to make contact with it"

"Got it, I'll just have to find it right?"

"That's right"

"Well Master it seems this is goodbye for now,"

"Take care Ryan, and remember, it was not your fault,"

And with that we got on Eryx boat now ready for whatever Bermesiah had in store for us. Waving goodbye to Eryuell and taking with us the hope of the elven people for peace. Soon Eryuell was no longer visible, the trip back to Bermesiah went smooth and quickly, arriving to Eryx shack faster than expected. After a little party for the girls, well mostly Lire, for achieving a new rank, we stayed with Eryx two more days after Arme got attacked while searching for something in the forest. Soon we made our way to Kanavan and for that we needed to once again go through Elven forest. As I guided them through the forest the girls now looked closer. Since the day Arme got attacked the girls seemed closer than ever.

'Well that was good, they would get along better,' I thought to myself. A few days later we got through Elven forest, and for me it was the goodbye to the girls.

"We have arrived girls" I stated cheerfully, my good nature being replenished by extensive time spent with Arme and the forest.

"Finally!!! I don't like that forest, I can't do anything there!!" Elesis exclaimed collapsing to the ground.

Lire responded, "Well that's because if you do anything you would destroy the forest."

"But the trees keep getting in the way!" Elesis cried.

"Still that is no reason to chop them down," I stated plainly.

"Girls you just need to go northwest from here and you will arrive to the Gorge of Oath, cross it and you will be in Kanavan" As amusing as this conversation, was I needed to inform them the way to go to get to Kanavan.

"Wait, does that means you won't go with us?" Arme questioned me with a surprisingly sad face.

"If I do I will only put you in danger, I could lose control anytime… and I don't' want to harm any of you" I didn't want to put them through danger, and if they were with me that would be a daily occurrence.

"Ryan, we didn't get through that training to just get killed you know?" Elesis said with confidence.

"Yeah we have become stronger, I'm sure the three of us can stop you if anything happens. Besides, we need someone that can stop Elesis from destroying forests" Lire said adding her reasoning.

"Hey!!! I don't destroy forests!!!"

"Come on Ryan, if you don't come with us I cannot help you get rid of your curse" Arme said as she started to walk to the northwest.

Those words truly made me happy; knowing that I have strong companions by my side that can stop me after losing control is reassuring. With that I decided to accompany them on their journey. After all I couldn't let three girls wander alone in dangerous places like the Gorge of Oath. Together we started walking to the Gorge of Oath, not knowing of the people and creatures that we would meet on our way to Kanavan.

* * *

A/N: Yay!!!! After a long time I have finally finished Chapter 4, nonw we know what Ryan was doing in their stay at Eryuell. Next chapter the Chase will go through the Gorge of Oath and finally arriving to Kanavan. I would like to thank my newly found Beta Reader Willowwhip, for having the patience to deal with all my grammar errors and stuff like that I'm truly thankful. As for the curious readers that want to happen what really happened to Arme in the forest plkease read Willowwhip story "Arme Falls Apart" your answer lies there.

Now that everything is said. Enjoy and R&R.


	6. Chapter 5 A Knights Oath

Disclaimer: I do not own Grand Chase

A/N: Hey there readers, after a long time, and a say a veryyyy long time, I have finally brought you chapter 5! I'm very sorry for the delay, school kept getting on the way, and you know that teachers like to gave you a lots of projects for finals. Finally we have the good version of this chapter, now free of grammar errors. I'll like to take Willowhip for revising this chapter and givingme tips to become a better author, Thank you Willow, your comments are always a driving force to keep writing. Read, review & Enjoy ^_^

* * *

Chapter 5

The Oath of a Knight

The trip from Elven forest to the gorge went uneventful, except for the amusing arguing of Arme and Elesis. Even though they got closer, they still got on each other's nerves. Arme made fun of Elesis' lack of knowledge and Elesis stressed the fact of Arme's shortness and so on. Sometimes there was no way to stop them, and Lire and I end up dragged into their little war of insults. Sometimes I call Lire names that are, well, kind of insulting if you have a certain part of your upper body bigger than the rest.

After a few days we finally arrived to the dreaded Gorge of Oath; a place that gained its name after the war between Serdin and Kanavan long ago. The legends say that a powerful warrior once defeated both armies singlehandedly in his attempt to stop the war and reason with both queens. The queens, impressed by his bravery, stopped the war at once and decided to give him the highest title ever granted. The warrior declined this title, insisting that he didn't need titles. Instead he took an oath to both queens, to forever protect the world if it ever fell into darkness.

"Ok girls we have finally arrived to the Gorge of Oath." I said to the girls catching their attention and showing them the magnificent look of the land.

"Finally! Now we just cross it and we reach Kanavan." Said an overly joyous Elesis.

"Kanavan, Kanavan Kanavan! That's all you have ever said these past days you knuckle head. Why are you so excited to get there?" Arme said, obviously annoyed by Elesis behavior. She was determined to get some information about her infatuation with Kanavan.

"Well… err… they say that Kanavan it's the kingdom of knights and melee fighters… and well… I just want to go there and see it for myself," Said a nervous Elesis as she stuttered a little on her words.

"Is that's so? Then why do you always stutter when we ask you about Kanavan?" Arme pressured her, never missing a chance to mess with Elesis mind.

"Well… that's because… look a harpy flock." Said Elesis in an attempt to change their conversation.

"Oh no, you won't get away with that," Said Arme, obviously catching on that Elesis was, once again trying to change the conversation.

"No really there is a flock of harpies over there, and they look like they are carrying something." The read head pointed to the sky, trying to get off the hook with this distraction.

"Really? Let me see" said Lire as she took a look to where Elesis was pointing. "They are just carrying a person," Lire started to make her way to the Gorge, only to stop dead on her tracks. With eyes open wide she exclaimed, "THEY ARE CARRYING A PERSON!"

"QUICKLY WE MUST DO SOMETHING!" Panic took control of us then. We really didn´t expect something like that, we needed to save that person.

"ARME CAN'T YOUR MAGIC REACH THE HARPIES?" Trying to be a leader, Elesis hoped for Arme's magic to be useful in this situation.

"IT COULD BUT IT WOULD ALSO HARM THE PERSON THEY ARE CARRYING!"

"WAIT! Let's calm down a little, since Elesis and I can't throw something that far and Arme's magic would most likely injure the person it seems only Lire can do something about it right?" Panicking over that wasn't going to get us anywhere. I took control of the situation, thinking of a solution,

"Well, I could, but I'm not so sure if that is a good idea." Hesitation made its way in Lire's voice, as she shifted slightly, uncomfortable with the idea.

"Well if we think of something else the harpy's are going to be out of sight by then, only you can make it. Besides, you are a member of the Elven corps, the best archers Eryuell has to offer. I'm sure you can do it."

"Ok, if you insist," Blushing slightly with the compliments, she took her bow and arrow, and with a perfect shot, Lire took down the harpy that was carrying the person.

"Hurry Lire, take the rest down; we will make sure that he or she is alright."

As Elesis said that we started to run to where the body fell into. After a few minutes of running we finally arrived to see a girl with long blue hair, her body covered with a cloak. Once we made sure that no harpy was following us we approached the girl to wake her up.

"Hey girl, are you alright?" I shocked the body gently to try and wake her up, looking over to Arme to tell her to prepare her healing magic, but she already was one step ahead of me as she was already by my side casting a checkup spell.

"It seems everything is alright; the concussion she received isn't something to be worried about. It seems something broke her fall. Still, we'll need to wait until she regains consciousness." Casting a healing spell, Arme stood next to the girl, her wand glowing with a pleasant green color.

"That's good to know." I said relieved that she was fine. As I looked to the sky, I noticed the day was coming to an end. "Hey girls, we should camp here for today. Continuing would be dangerous if we have to take care of an unconscious person"

"Ok then, we'll set camp here. That means it is time." A mischievous grin was making its way to Elesis face.

"That time? What is she talking about?" confused as to what Elesis was talking about, I turned around and asked Lire.

"You'll see."

"Noooo! Not that time again! Every time we do this you end up with nothing to do, and I always end up with the most difficult task." Arme said with an angry voice.

"What? That's not true, you just have bad luck." An indignant Elesis said with apparent shock in her voice.

"Liar, you mess with the straws, I just know." With a cute little pout, Arme showed her discontent.

"Straws?" Clearly confused, I once again turned to Lire, searching for an explanation.

"Yeah, we kinda have a game to decide which one of us have to cook, gather fire wood, and stuff like that. Elesis arranges a bunch of straws in her hand and we take turn each to take one, and the one who takes the longest one gets to do the more tedious task that we need to do, such as getting water or hunt something to eat, stuff like that, the one that gets the middle one gets to cook and the one that gets the shortest gets to laze around."

"Oh, interesting." This game they came up with seemed like fun, so I decided to get into their little game. "Hey Elesis mind if I'm the one who arranges the straws?"

"Eh, B-but the leader always arranges it. Besides we are one missing one straw."

"Now don't be like that, let Ryan do it this time. Consider it like a special favor for the newest member."

"Yeah the straw isn't a problem, here I got one."

"O-ok…"

Elesis handed me the straws, and as soon as I had it in my hands, I knew that Arme accusations weren't that far from the true, you could easily feel which one was the shortest one, so to make this a fair game I arranged the straws in such a way so that neither of us could know which straw was which one.

"There we go, now ladies pick your straw." I waved my hand in front of the girls, with a speed that amazed me, Lire and Arme grabbed one of the straws, with only 2 straws left I signalized for Elesis to reach and choose one of the remaining straws.

"Ok Here we go!" Closing her eyes, she quickly reached for one straw, and in one dramatic pull she grabbed one. Like we were in sync we slowly opened our hands to see which task we had to do, surprisingly I got the smallest one, Arme the second smallest, Lire the second larger and Elesis the largest one.

"So… ran out of luck Elesis?" with a cheeky attitude Arme tried to annoy Elesis.

Elesis sulked a little, now realizing that she had to do some work for a change, "No-Not really, it's just, not my day…"

"So what do we need you to do 'Leader'?"

"We need some firewood to start a fire if we are going to camp here and some food. The one Eryx gave us is going to run out soon." Searching through the food supply, Lire quickly made a list of the essential for the night.

"The only wildlife that we have around is drillmon, harpies, and gons. Not much of a variety, but I heard that drillmon meat is quite tasty," I suggested, using my knowledge of Bermesiah wildlife.

"Let's try that, I don't want to mess with the harpies, they are such crybabies, one small thing and you got the queen after you."

"So tonight we eat drillmon!" Now it was Arme's turn to be excited.

"You sure sound happy Arme." I smiled at Arme's happiness.

With a brilliant smile, she explained me the reasons of her happiness, "Yes! This is the first time in the entire journey that Elesis gets to do the harsh task for once, besides I always wanted to eat drillmon meat."

"Well they are hard to hunt, as they don't go alone, always in group, so you really need to be patient when hunting them, you can't just dash around and attack them, one step wrong and you find yourself surrounded by the whole herd." I explained. Arme's eyes got an evil glint, an aura that clearly spelled revenge now surrounded her.

"Elesis we got your job for the day!"

"Oh no, you want me to hunt drillmons alone?"

"Well I could go with you but I need to search for firewood." Lire skillfully took the next task, making with it an excuse to not hunt drillmons.

"I could try to but if I go we get to eat them raw, I'm sure you wouldn't like that right?" Taking cooking as her task, Arme also got an excuse to not hunt.

I felt sorry for Elesis, to hunt drillmon's wasn't an easy task, and knowing her impatience I'm sure she would be surrounded by the herd in minutes.

"I could help y-ow." As I was offering my help to Elesis an elbow to my stomach stooped me from doing so.

"Oh Ryan, are you ok? You should rest here. After all you won the game." Arme's elbow was the thing that hit me in the stomach.

"No it's alright I'll help Eles- uff." once again another elbow to my stomach interrupted me from helping Elesis.

"I Insist Ryan; you really don't look good, besides I want someone to keep me company while I wait for the ingredients."

"Well you got that girl over there." I pointed to where the girl we rescued early was now resting.

"Well an unconscious person can't help me if we get attacked right?"

"I suppose you are right." Noticing that Elesis and Lire were already gone, I gave up and decided to rest this time.

"I'm always right wolf boy; you should save that in your heart." Arme gave me a dazzling smile as she went to sit near a secluded spot where the rocks shadow shielded her from the sun.

"Will do, mage girl." With a smile on my lips I sat close to Arme, within minutes we fell in a comfortable silence. We admired the scenery the gorge gave us as the day was coming to an end.

"Ryan?" Arme's soft voice woke me from my almost slumber.

"Mmm wazzup?" With a dizzy tone, I turned to look at her, to see if there was something wrong.

"Nothing, just wondering if you were asleep." A little smile made its way to Arme's face.

"I was getting there, but it seems you won't let me."

"So you were going to let a defenseless girl be the one to guard the fort while you get a quiet sleep?" She asked me with mock incredulity; mischievousness evident on her voice.

Catching her playful mood I followed suit, as I replied sarcastically, "Defenseless? Yeah right, one wave form your wand and a horde of orcs flee in fear of being petrified."

"So? I'm still a fragile girl, I need some time to cast that type of magic, by the time I get the spell ready, the orcs would surely have given me a beating or two." She retorted, now with mock indignation.

"Well before that happens, your knight in shining armor will come and save the day." With a smile, I continued with the playful mood.

"As if, there's no one like that for me." The sadness with which she said that surprised me.

"You didn't let me get some sleep, so now we won't know; now the mystery will remain for the future generations to solve," Not liking to see her sad, I joked, making her laugh.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll find one, and he'll love you more than anything else," I said reassuringly.

"You seem less sulky than before," She said in a soft voice, trying to change the subject.

"It's because I have you," This statement made realize, that now my guilt seemed to be easier to carry. So I replied her with my honest opinion.

"Wh-wha-what?" A blushing Arme stuttered cutely.

"I have you girls as the friends I've wished for a long time. You forgave me for my sins, you gave me a smile instead of a frown, you accepted me for who I am, but most importantly you gave me hope again."

"I-It's nothing! That's what friends are for right? Besides… I like your company."

Once again she gave that dazzling smile that could easily light a whole room, and she lightly put her head in my shoulder. With just that action I felt my face getting hotter, realizing that the one blushing this time was me. Once again falling in a comfortable silence, we stayed like that for a moment. A little while later we were startled by a certain red head.

"Hey lovebirds! Finished flirting with each other?"

"We were not flirting." Once again Arme denied it. Not wanting to give the red head reasons to mess with her.

Not wanting to waste this opportunity, she tried to argue with the little purple head,"Last time I checked, if a boy and girl are sitting together with the girl head in the boy's shoulder and with at least one of them blushing, it means they were flirting."

"Well check again. I, for once, am not blushing."

"Ha, ha, ha, keep thinking that midget."

"At least I'm not a knuckle head."

"Elesis! Arme! Stop fighting and let's start getting things ready, I'm getting quite hungry," Lire scolded the arguing duo, wanting Arme to hurry and cook the meat.

Searching for an excuse to get away from there before they noticed my red face, I stood up and started to make my way out of there saying the first thing that came to my mind.

"Girls I'll go for a little walk, just to check if we are out of danger." Hiding my face from the girls, I quickly made my way out of there, wondering why I was blushing by the thought of Arme's smile.

'What's wrong with me? What's this feeling in my gut?' Not comprehending my own feelings, I walked a little, my mind in the clouds.

Trying to get my mind off of that particular thought I remembered that I told the girls that I was going to scout the area, so I began to search for possible ambush. Remembering the multiple uses of totems that Master Segesu taught me I put totems nearby, creating a perimeter with them. A barrier emerged from them, protecting us from possible danger at night.

Smelling something delicious in the air, my stomach reminded me that I also needed some food in my system. Seeing that I finished my cover up excuse, I returned to where the girls were. I followed the delicious smell of meat being cooked just the right way.

"Hey, look who's back?" Already devouring the almost raw meat Elesis greeted me.

"Everything alright?"

"Oh yeah… no monsters out there to bother us."

"Here, your share" Arme gave me my share of the food, taking advantage of the situation, she asked me in a low voice. "Did you raise the barrier that is surrounding us?"

"Yes I did… was I not supposed to do so?" Understanding that she wanted the conversation to be kept secret, I too answered her in a low voice.

"Oh no, on the contrary you saved me the job. Normally I'm the one who raises these barriers before going to sleep." Serving her share of food, she took a seat near me, wanting to continue the conversation. "I didn't know you could use magic too."

"Well it's not really magic." A mix of confusion and interest was evident on Arme's face "As you know, every being has mana inside of them, and this mana is what gives birth to magic. Theoretically, everyone should be able to use magic."

"But it's not that easy to get that mana out of your body, and controlling the flow of it it's even more difficult. Besides if all the mana leaves the body the person in question could die. Only the ones with a great supply of mana can use magic, and to prevent casualties, we mages receive special training to control our mana without depleting it."

"Right, what I used to create the barrier wasn't entirely my own mana, I mixed my mana with the one that surround us, in other words I used both my mana and natures mana."

"I see, but it's impossible to combine 2 types of mana."

"That's why we druids have a close bond with nature. That way we can synchronize our own mana with nature's."

"So you are like me." I heard Arme whisper these words, not understanding the meaning behind them.

"Did you say something?"

"No, you must be hearing things."

"Right…" Seeing Arme's discomfort, I decided to focus on the food I had in front of me, not wanting to question further upon this. If Arme didn't want to talk about it, I'll respect her wish.

"Hmmmm." A moan signalized that our guest was now awake.

"Hey our guest is finally waking up."

"Hey, girl, you alright?"

"Who are you calling a girl? I happen to be a knight under the orders of Lady Karina, queen of Kanavan." A deep voice resembling that of a man answered our question, opening her robes to reveal that she actually was a boy.

"WHAT!" We couldn't believe what we saw, the girl that we saved was actually a boy? And not just any boy, a Kanavan knight to boot.

"Elesis? Is that you?" The Blue haired boy looked surprised to see our self proclaimed leader.

"RONAN?" A surprised red head stood up, dropping her plate, still with food on it, on the ground. Shock evident on her face.


	7. Chapter 6 The Night of the Red Full Moon

Disclaimer: I do not own Grand Chase

A/N: Hey there readers! it's been a long time since last chapter, for that I apologize, you know with school and the like one doesn't have the time to write or correct mistakes. Once again I'll like to thank my beta WIllowwhip for having the patience of revising, correcting my mistakes and for making me see them. So once again, read, enjoy and review.

* * *

Chapter 6

The Night of the Red Full Moon

"RONAN! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?"

"'Hi' to you too Elesis. It's nice to see you again." With a chuckle to Elesis' reaction, Ronan explained why he was in the gorge, "I was on my way to Serdin to get you. Lady Karina has summoned you. She found out that you joined the Grand Chase, and wants to talk to you."

"So, you know Girly-Boy, 'leader'?" Not letting something as juicy as this to escape from my grasp, I dug deeper into the knuckle head.

"You know I'm right here," the boy pointed out.

Elesis shrugged it off, "Ehh… not really… I was just surprised to see how well-cared his hair is…"

"I would like to know that too." Seeing Ronan silky hair made me wish mine was like that too. Snapping out of my thoughts my mind returned to the topic at hand, I won't let Elesis change the topic like that.

"Hey! Don't change the topic!"

"Let us leave the beauty tips for later, I would like to know how you know Girly-Boy too."

"Once again I'm right here! You can see me right?" an upset Ronan asked Ryan, trying to make sure he really was there.

"Eehh… Right."

"Alright, alright, I'll tell you." Seeing that she was cornered, Elesis finally told us how she met Ronan.

"I'm a citizen of Kanavan, a kingdom well known for the famous melee warriors it has produced. Ronan and I have known each other all our lives, my father taught both of us the basics of how to use a sword."

"Anyways, Lady Karina has summoned you Elesis," before any if us could ask anything else, Ronan stated the reason of his journey.

"So I'm in trouble?"

"Most likely, she looked quite angry when she gave me the mission to look for you."

"Damn it. Just What I needed…" Elesis slapped a hand to her face, a frustrated look now on her face.

"Say Elesis… How've you been?" Ronan's voice now caring; forgetting his business like tone.

"I've been well" Ronan's caring tone made our red-head leader to get a little red on the cheeks.

"It's just… I didn't expect you to run to Serdin after being demoted…"

"It was something I needed to do, I needed to grow up and become stronger."

"Ok since our leader is flirting with Girly-Boy, I'm gonna catch some sleep so goodnight all." The mushy atmosphere was getting to me, and I wanted to get out of there; seeing Elesis flustered face was kinda rare, and it only happened if she was embarrassed. Seeing her being flustered around Ronan gave me the perfect opportunity to get back at her for her many remarks about Ryan and me.

Finding a nice spot, I started to put my tent and prepare myself for the night, once I was ready I fell on my makeshift bed soon to be emerged on my dreams.

Loud noises woke me up from my slumber, I tried to ignore them but the noises wouldn't stop. I quickly got out of my tent to put a stop to the noises, not finding anything I walked to the Stones that were surrounding our camp, only to find Ryan fighting a monster.

Noticing I was awake he called to me while dodging the monster attacks, "Hey sleepy head, had a nice dream?"

"I had until your fight with that thing woke me up"

"Ha ha ha. Sorry about that, apparently this boy wants to get back at us." Dodging and counterattacking, Ryan seemed to have the situation under control, yet his statement made me wonder, why would this monster try to get back at us?.

"Huh? Why?" Wand at hand, I stepped closer to where the fight was taking place, seeing a giant bee like creature that looked very familiar, but my still-sleepy mind couldn't process yet the information.

Swinging his axe to keep the monster at bay, he answered me, a little of sarcasm dripping in his voice, "I dunno, maybe it was the fact that we ate one of its kind?"

"Huh? But all we ate was a dri- Oh shit!" Realization finally made its way onto my mind, now indentifying the monster to be a Drillmon, but not any Drillmon, but a giant one.

"Ha ha. That was also my reaction to when I found who was attacking us."

"I'll go wake the others before that thing gets reinforcements."

"Please do mage-girl; I'll try to distract it"

Running to where the other tents were. Not wanting to awake the others one by one, I quickly made use of my recent alchemy teachings to cast a bomb and detonated it. The sound of the explosion was loud enough to wake the others.

"Where's the fire?" A still asleep Lire stepped quickly form her tent.

"What the hell is happening?" Ronan too stepped out of his tent, struggling with his belt.

"Oh aside from a giant Drillmon trying to kill us nothing much."

Finally waking up, Lire exclaimed, "What! Where is it?"

"Ryan trying to fight it but we fear he'll call for reinforcement so we must hu-" A roar filled the sky and soon we could hear the flapping wings of various Drillmon going to where Ryan was fighting, "Ok scratch that, we must hurry to help him."

"Wait a minute, where's Elesis?"

"That red headed moron must still be asleep," not wanting to leave Ryan there fighting alone with all the Drillmons, I took the best course of action, "you two go help Ryan, he is around the boulders surrounding us. I'll go wake up our knuckle headed leader."

Running to Elesis' tent, I found her calmly sleeping despite all the ruckus that was going on outside., I prepared some mana for a 'light' magical wake up call, "Shock Stunt!"

"AAAAHHHH!" Screaming from the electrical shock, Elesis finally woke up, "Hey! Don't go electrocuting people for no reason."

"Actually, Leader, I have a reason." Finally getting some revenge on Elesis, I smiled a little.

"And that is?"

"One, for fun," Elesis angry expression made me smile more, as she tried to go for her sword, but I quickly voiced the second reason, "Two because there's a horde of Drillmon out there and you are here, SLEEPING!"

"WHAT! And you are still here too? Let's go already," Quickly dressing and taking her sword she followed out the tent.

With knuckle head leader finally awake we went to where the battle unfolded.

"Nice to finally see you here Elesis."

"Had a nice dream 'Leader'?"

"Ehh... yeah let's just get these Drillmons to back off for now," Flushing a little Elesis quickly made her way onto the fight.

The fight went on and on, Lire firing arrows every way to stop the Drillmon from reaching us, Elesis fending back Drillmons with her sword, Ronan and Ryan fighting with the biggest one and I was casting supporting spells when I could, not letting the Drillmons get any closer with my black magic.

"There's no end to them."

"Damn they are tough."

"Just hold them back while we take care of the leader," Ronan yelled at us, making his best to injure the Giant Drillmon.

"We are trying! There's too many of them," As I said this, the Drillmons cornered us against a cliff.

Guarding against an attack form the Giant Drillmon, Ryan swung his axe to the ground, lifting it with enough force to make the earth shoot up, creating a temporary shield with it, "Damn it! Ronan go save the girls I'll try to distract this guy!"

"But…"

"No buts, go save the girls, we can let them die here. I won't let them!" Yelling to Ronan, Ryan stepped out of his temporary earth shield and resumed his fight with the Giant Drillmon.

"Alright then," Making a dash to where we were, Ronan jumped as high as he could, landing in front of us, turning to face the Drillmons, he slashed his sword to make them back a little, "You girls needed a knight?"

"Just shut up and help us Ronan"

"The same old Elesis." as Ronan said that he produced a ball of mana in his hands, I could feel and enormous amount of mana in that orb, he thrusted his hand forward, making the orb in his hand float forward in a slow manner. "Lunatic Force!"

As soon as the orb made contact with a Drillmon it exploded with icy energy, making all the Drillmon surrounding us freeze.

My eyes almost fell out of its sockets, seeing a knight perform magic was unheard of, at least as far as I was concerned, "Ice Magic… You can use Magic!"

"That's right," Falling to his knees in exhaustion he rose his head to answer me. "I'm Ronan Erudon, member of the Magic Royal Knights squadron"

"Arme! It's not the time to be fascinated with that, let's go help Ryan," Lire once again being the voice of reason made me came back from my train of thoughts.

"Right."

We hurried to where Ryan was fighting, only to see his axe fly away from his hand, now at the mercy of the Giant Drillmon and some smaller ones.

"Ryan!"

Before I could go to his side to help him, Ryan held his arm up, "Stand back! You won't like to see this."

"Ryan you don't mean… you are using that?"

My question went unanswered as we saw Ryan's transformation take place, his eyes becoming beast like, white fur growing everywhere unlike the orange one we saw at the forest, hands morphing unto claws, his face becoming that of a wolf, with his transformation complete he roared to the full moon. The Drillmon seeing this cowered in fear of the aura Ryan in his wolf form was now radiating, seeing the number advantage they had they decided to attack all at once.

"What the hell just happened?" A very confused Ronan asked.

"Ryan is an elven Druid, one of the few that still remains, the Druids have the power to transform in one of nature spirit," Using use of her Knowledge, Lire quickly explained to Ronan what happened, "Ryan's guardian spirit is a wolf, but this one is different than the one we saw at Elven Forest."

"Different?"

"We met Ryan in Elven Forest, he saved us from a troll using his wolf transformation, but the fur was orange not white" Elesis this time answered Ronan question.

Claw against claw clashed, Ryan's speed while in wolf form made him capable of dodging the multiple attacks the Drillmon were launching at him and at the same time, feinting some of them.

After pondering the reason of his white fur, I suddenly remembered a connection that the wolf had, "Could it be because of the moon?"

"The moon?"

"Yeah. Since ancient times the moon and wolf have had a connection. Legend said that the wolf once saved the moon spirit from being killed, so the moon in appreciation gave the wolf her protection; making his power grow with her presence."

We could only stare at the sight in front of us. Ryan's speed in wolf form made it possible to deal with all the Drillmon, now he was fighting the big one. We were so caught up in watching the fight that we didn't noticed some of the smaller Drillmon waking up and getting closer to us behind our backs, attacking us and forcing us to release our weapons.

"What the?"

"When did they get behind us?"

"That doesn't matter; we need to escape from them."

"Well thank you for stating the obvious Knuckle Head."

Little by little we found ourselves surrounded by the drillmon, our weapons lying on the other side, Drillmons guarding them. Once Ryan saw that, he made a run to where we were, only for him to be stopped by a rock to his back, knocking him to the ground. Once he was down the giant Drillmon jumped as high as he could, pointing his needle to where Ryan was laying. It fell with a sickening sound. Ryan's howls of pain were heard in throughout gorge.

"RYAN!" I screamed.

Ryan transformation began again, claws morphing to hands, fur getting smaller till there was none, slit eyes transforming back to his gentle eyes. With a low voice he managed to say, "Sorry."

Howling in what seemed to be a victory, the drillmon attacked us, making sure that none of us had a chance to escape. The only thing we could do was try and avoid the incoming attacks, but there were too many of them and in the end we sustained some injuries.

Through the flurry of drillmon, an angry Ryan screamed with all he had "NOO! I won't let you hurt them anymore!"

Surprisingly his transformation once again started but this time his fur was not white, it was black; his eyes grew more menacing and started glowing with a murderous red color. With a speed that surprised us he started his attack, and in a flash we saw blood rain upon us. Drillmon started to fall from the sky. Terrified by the sight, the Giant Drillmon quickly made its retreat.

Once the rain stopped we could only spot Ryan, howling to the crimson moon. Blood dripped from his claws and fangs and he held an expression that looked like he enjoyed the slaughtering that he just did.

"Thanks man" Ronan said as he stood up, slowly making his way to Ryan, "That really helped us."

Just as he was to slap Ryan's back in appreciation, the wolf made a violent turn; swinging his claw in front of him; his claws slashing Ronan's chest.

Ronan fell to the ground on his knee and held a hand to his chest, trying to make the bleeding stop.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" he asked.

"Ryan it's alright, they are gone"

Ryan's eyes held a menacing glare; red eyes glowing in the darkness of the night and claws dripping with blood. Not listening to anyone, he slowly rose his hand with the intention of slashing Ronan. He was the closest to him.

Sword met claw, as Elesis managed to block the attack, not letting Ryan hurt him anymore.

"Ryan! What are you trying to do? We won" Elesis tried to reason with him, only for her to be pushed aside quite easily. Using this chance, I rushed to Ronan and quickly cast a healing spell on him.

"Thanks," Ronan said to me, as he took a hold of his sword.

"Wait, you need to rest," Gripping his cloak, I tried to stop Ronan, knowing that if he fought, his wound would open again.

Not listening to my advice he shook off my hand and quickly made his way to help Elesis, "Sorry, but I need to help Elesis."

"It must be the curse acting up, quickly we must help," putting her hand on my shoulder, Lire made her way to where Elesis was fighting against Ryan.

"Yeah…we promised to stop him if this happened." Not liking this at all, I also stood up; wand now in hand. I slowly made my way to the battleground.

Ryan's speed made it almost impossible for a single person to stand up against him, so Elesis and Ronan attacked him from the front, while Lire shot arrows to make him flinch a little, giving Elesis and Ronan a chance to either, attack or back away.

"Ryan… I hope you forgive us for what we are about to do," I quickly recited a spell, concentrating my mana in my wand and giving it form.

"Dammit! Hurry Arme! We can't entertain him for long!" Elesis shouted to me, dodging a slash by rolling in the ground.

"Stop interrupting me Knuckle head; just stop his movements for a little while," Finishing my mana's form I unleashed the spell, "ICE TRAP!"

A magic circle appeared near Ryan, missing him as he moved to the side to avoid the spell, as soon as he saw this Ronan quickly locked him in a power struggle.

"Just push him to the circle!"

"I'm trying!" little by little Ronan slowly pushed Ryan to the magic circle; meanwhile I was trying my best to keep the spell form activating yet.

Finally Ronan pushed him to the circle, but there was a problem, the two of them where in the circle.

"Quickly let go!"

"I can't, otherwise he'll just get away."

Seeing this opportunity Elesis readied her sword, running to where Ronan was. Quickly sensing the attack, Ryan made Ronan's sword stick to the ground, holding his claws close to his chest, mana gathering around him, just as Elesis was about to hit him with her sword, Ryan howled, Making the two of them fly away by the immense mana he expelled with his howl.

Seeing this chance I released the spell, ice exploding around him, trapping him in an icicle, guilt making its way to my face, "I'm sorry Ryan".

The ice quickly shattered, leaving Ryan in the ground, his transformation finally yielding, leaving him knocked down, unconscious.

"Arme quick come here," Lire yelled at me, who was by where Elesis and Ronan were.

"Ronan! Hang in there! Arme's on her way!"

"I told you that you should have rested," Quickly reaching to where he was, I signaled for Lire to check on Ryan, quickly chanting a cure spell, "Look at the size of the wound."

"Sorry" that was the last thing Ronan said before he too blacked out.

"Say Lire how's Ryan?" no longer having Ronan's life at stake, I looked to where Lire was. Concern for Ryan rang clear in my voice.

"He is fine, just unconscious."

"Good, that is good to know," Relief washed over me, as we watched the sun rise, saying that the night was over, and the day was just starting.

"We should hurry to Kanavan, their wounds will only get worse if they are not treated accordingly." Once again being the voice of reason, Lire voiced out what we should make our top priority for now.

"Right! Let's quickly pick our stuff up and then get going."

The three of us quickly tidied up the place and carried the boys through the gorge.

After a long silence and time spent in our own thoughts, it dawned on me that I didn't have the slightest idea where we were headed. We were following our knuckle-headed leader. That couldn't be a good sign.

I decided to ask.

"Elesis, where are we headed?"

"Ronan's place."

"Oh…" There was no more talking after that.

As we approached Ronan's abode, I quickly realized that he lived in a MANSION. Lire's mouth was agape. I couldn't resist commenting.

"Wow~" I said, "I know he's a member of the Royal guard...but..."

Elesis sighed, unimpressed, "What did you expect?"

I growled at her, but didn't respond.

After finally arriving to Ronan's mansion and handing over the boys, we were quickly shown where we were to spend the night.

Still not speaking, each of us made our way to the bedrooms. Once my head touched the pillows I fell asleep, menacing red eyes haunting my dreams until I stopped dreaming.


End file.
